


Nothing Is Left To Protest

by noroadstaken



Series: The Adventures of Anne & Will [6]
Category: & Juliet - Martin/West Read, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Gryffindor!Kit, Gryffindor!Will, Idiots in Love, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Slytherin!Anne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:41:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23416876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noroadstaken/pseuds/noroadstaken
Summary: Will has been in love with Anne since his first day at Hogwarts, but it's not until his fourth year that Anne pays him any attention. Anne can't understand why Will cares for her so much.Hogwarts AU that no one asked for ft. Kit Marlowe as matchmaker.
Relationships: Anne Hathaway Shakespeare/William Shakespeare
Series: The Adventures of Anne & Will [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672639
Kudos: 6





	Nothing Is Left To Protest

**Author's Note:**

> **WARNINGS FOR MENTIONED ABUSE (ITS MENTIONED VERY BRIEFLY BUT IT'S IN THERE SO PLEASE TAKE CAUTION)**
> 
> I don't know if the ending's too abrupt or not but I intended for this to be three times shorter than it was so I ended it. I might end up writing more for this AU in the future but who knows.

Anne had no idea why William Shakespeare was walking into her fifth-year Transfiguration class. Will was a year underneath her and was possibly one of the most irritating, and dumbest, people at Hogwarts (though that position was also shared with her fellow Slytherin classmates). She had no idea how he could end up in her OWL level lessons. What shocked Anne, even more, was when Will came and plopped himself in the chair next to hers, straightening his tie and running a hand through his hair, and not next to one of his fellow Gryffindors.

"Can I help you?" Anne said through gritted teeth, turning towards Will and trying to remain polite.

"Oh, no. You're just the only person in this class who can tolerate me." Will answered with a sheepish grin. Anne rolled her eyes. She couldn't tolerate him, she just had to put up with him following her like a pining puppy for the three years they'd been at Hogwarts together.

"Why are you in this class?" Anne asked, electing to ignore his oblivious comment.

Will shrugged. "They've put me in for my OWLs a year early."

Anne didn't get to reply, as Professor McGonagall came sweeping into the class calling out for everyone to remain quiet and open their textbooks to page twenty-two.

Will, Anne realised, was not as dumb as he seemed on the outside. Even though he was a year below them he was easily one of the smartest in the class (along with Anne herself). Anne didn't understand how she'd got him wrong all this time.

"What classes do we have together?" Will asked as McGonagall sent them all away, pulling his timetable out of his bag. "You're taking Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures, right?"

Anne nodded, not bothering to ask how Will knew this.

"Gryffindor's have Potions and Care of Magical Creatures with Slytherin, so I guess we'll be sharing those classes too." Will continued. Anne stared at him, dumbfounded. "What?"

"Why are you trying to be friends with me? You see how the other Slytherins treat me." Anne motioned to a couple of Slytherin girls who were exiting the class behind Will, whispering and pointing in Anne's direction. They immediately stopped talking and rushed out of the classroom when they realised they'd been spotted by Anne. "None of them wants to be friends with a muggleborn, and it's not like any of the other houses care about me."

"You really think I care what other people think about you?" Will asked.

Anne shrugged. "It's not like anyone's done any different."

Will was about to respond when McGonagall called out across the room that she had another class in five minutes, so she'd appreciate if the two of them left. Anne pushed her bag further up her shoulder and rushed out of the classroom before Will could say anything more. Anne didn't notice Will watching her leave with a sad look on his face.

Safe in the Slytherin dormitory for the rest of the evening (Anne was very thankful Transfiguration was the last class of the day), Anne thought back to her interaction with Will. He was the first student to treat her as another witch, and not either call her offensive names behind her back or simply ignore she existed. She couldn't understand why Will took any interest in her, she never had.

For the past three years they'd been at Hogwarts together, Will had always tried to get close to her. She'd never forget the opening ceremony in the second year, Will's first, sitting at the end of the bench and ignoring everyone around her as her classmates enjoyed their feast and not paying any attention to her.

_Anne pushed the food on her plate around with her fork, not bothered about eating anything. Sure, she was glad to be back at Hogwarts and away from her parent's house, where they shouted at her and constantly ignored her existence (hating the fact they'd got a witch as a daughter), but Anne also hated how little she was respected by her peers._

_"Look at her," Anne overheard a Slytherin girl from the year above her say, "she can't even eat wizard food the filthy mudblood. No wonder she has no friends."_

_Anne squeezed her eyes shut and tried to stop herself from crying. When she opened them, she immediately locked eyes with a boy from across the hall. He must've been a first year, he was yet to be wearing a particular house tie, but the boy was seated at the Gryffindor table. Anne sent a small smile his way which was immediately returned with a beaming one._

_"What's the mudblood smiling at?" A voice from a place or two down the table said, and Anne's smile dropped, her eyes falling back to her plate. She was knocked back to reality. In a few days, the boy would learn about her and he wouldn't smile at her again, there was no point having false hope._

A week later Anne would learn that boy was William, a half-blood Gryffindor, who would spend the next three years of their time here pining after her. Anne always thought he was an idiot with no brains who got into trouble constantly, along with his best friend, Christopher "Kit" Marlowe, another Gryfffindor. She'd heard about all the dumb things that Will and Kit got themselves into, mainly thanks to Will, and she always imagined his infatuation with her would end up being another idiot idea that phased away like everything else. If today was anything to go by, it hadn't.

Today's classed raised a lot of questions about Will. He was obviously smarter than everybody gave him credit for, being the only person in the past four years Anne had spent in Hogwarts to skip a year. What she couldn't understand was why insisted on acting like a fool? Anne needed answers, and there was only one person who could give her them.

An arm reached out and pulled Will into an abandoned corridor. He instantly went to grab his wand out of his pocket but faltered at a flash of red hair.

"Anne?"

"Well done, William." Anne rolled her eyes. "I want to talk to you."

Will's eyebrows rose. "You want to talk to me?"

"Yes. I need to ask you something." Anne said. Will watched as Anne struggled to get the words out. She didn't know how to phrase her question without sounding like she was insulting him. "Why do you act like a dumbass?"

Apparently, there wasn't a way.

"You always do these stupid pranks or act like you don't know anything but you're actually extremely smart. You must be to be taking your OWLs in your fourth year. Yet you insist on being this idiotic fool who doesn't know how to stand on his own two feet."

Whatever Will expected Anne to say, it wasn't that. He didn't know how to respond until he heard Anne add something else in a small voice.

"I don't understand why someone as smart as you would insist on being friends with someone like me."

"Anne Hathaway, you are beautiful, smart and amazing. You have to deal with everything your classmates throw at you and yet you still bounce back. I wish I was as strong as you." Will said, holding onto her shoulders and looking her in the eye. Anne tried to look away, but Will wouldn't let her.

"Will, please let me go," Anne asked, timidly. She could feel the tears rising and she couldn't let herself cry in public like this. No one had ever talked about her like this before.

Will removed his hands from her shoulders and Anne immediately wrapped them around herself. It made her look even smaller than she already was and Will wanted to wrap her up in his arms and never let go.

"I have one request," Will said and Anne nodded. "Let me be your friend. If you still don't want me around afterwards then I promise, I'll leave you alone."

Anne bit her bottom lip, she hoped she didn't regret this. "Deal."

The following few months were the happiest Anne had ever been in her life. Letting Will in was honestly one of the best decisions she'd made (not that she'd ever admit that) and it wasn't solely because of him. What she didn't know when she agreed to his terms, was that being friends with Will meant she was instantly considered a friend by Kit, who was hilarious, charming and almost as bright as her and Will, even though he stayed in his regular fourth-year classes.

Most of Anne's time outside lessons was spent in the Gryffindor common room, thanks to the expert way herself and the boys managed to sneak her in, and only returning to her own dormitory to sleep. The Gryffindors paid her no attention and the Slytherins seemed to be thankful to see less of her too.

Anne didn't realise just how much Will had changed her.

Anne's realisation came around two months after that night in the corridor. Will, Kit and herself were holed up in the library, spending their evening doing homework for their respective classes. The two boys wouldn't have been caught dead in the library before Anne entered their life, but it wasn't just Will who had changed Anne during this time.

"Do either of you know where my Arithmancy textbook is?" Anne asked, looking through the pile of books that had gathered on their desk.

Will looked up from where he was writing his Potions essay. "Is it not on the table?"

"No. I must've left it in my room." Anne sighed, falling back into her seat. She didn't want to have to walk back to her dormitory and face the Slytherins. "The homework's due tomorrow. I really need to get this chart done tonight."

"I can see if there's a spare one in here somewhere. Numerology and Grammatica, right?" Anne nodded and Will stood up, sliding his Potions essay in her direction. "Check this over while I search for it."

Will kissed Anne on the forehead and disappeared into the stack of books and Kit, who had been silently watching their exchange, immediately turned in Anne's direction.

"Spill, Hathaway."

"What?"

"You and Will. There's got to be something more going on there." Kit said, leaning back on his chair and twirling his quill between his fingers.

Anne blushed and became extremely interested in Will's essay. "I have no idea what you mean."

Kit raised an eyebrow and stared at Anne until she could no longer concentrate on what she was reading. Anne sighed heavily and looked up to glare at Kit.

"I like him more than I thought I would. Happy?"

"Oh no. I need details." Kit smirked, leaning forward on the table to get closer to Anne. "You do realise Will has been in love with you since his first day at Hogwarts?"

"What?!"

Anne had always known Will had a strange fondness for her, his years of pining and shown that, but she had no idea how strong his feelings ran. She'd always assumed that this thing for her would run its course. Even now, she expected him to tire of her one day and Anne would go back to being alone once again. It's how it had been for the first 15 years of her life and how it would be for the rest of them.

"He's in love with me?" Anne said, eventually. Kit nodded, enjoying the sight of a flustered Anne.

"Unfortunately for me. If it wasn't for you, I would've snapped him up like that." Kit clicked his fingers to emphasise his point.

"He's in love with me," Anne repeated, ignoring Kit's last comment. A small smile slipped onto her face. Someone was in love with her, and she was beginning to realise she was starting to fall in love back.

"They had it!"

Will's return broke the spell that had fallen over the table. He dropped the book on top of his essay in front of her, but Anne couldn't tear her eyes away from his face.

"Is everything alright?" Will asked. Anne nodded and let her gaze wander to the book he had brought her.

"Everything's perfect."

Ever since Anne's realisation that day in the library, she did everything in her power to avoid Will. She came into lessons at the last minute and sat at the opposite end of the room from him, returned to sitting at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall and spending all her free time holed up in her dormitory. Even though the thought of being in love with someone and having them love her back was amazing to Anne at first, she soon felt herself slipping back into her old habits. She'd let herself become too close to Will, and soon everything would turn sour again like it always did.

Will spent every day apart from Anne aching to have her back. It was worse than before, now knowing how it felt to have her be a part of his life. He didn't understand what he'd done wrong, he thought they were getting along fine, brilliantly in fact, and it made no sense as to why she was running from him again. He intended to corner her one day after lessons, but Kit beat him to it.

"I know you're avoiding Will." Kit said as Anne turned the corner out of the Great Hall. She jumped, not expecting to see the younger boy there.

"Kit, what are you doing?"

"You need to stop avoiding, Will." Kit repeated.

"I don't know what you mean." Anne denied, before walking as fast as she could down the corridor away from him.

Kit jogged after her to keep up. "You're pulling away after what happened that night in the library, but you need to stop. Admitting your feelings for Will isn't going to cause some world-ending catastrophe, you know you might actually start feeling happy for once."

Anne stopped in her place and Kit almost ran into her back. She whirled around to face him, her eyes ablaze and she stared him down.

"You have no idea what I'm feeling or what I've been through. So, don't you try to lecture me on what I should do." Anne said, her voice dangerously low.

"I know before us you didn't have anyone. I know you never go back home during breaks even though everyone would expect you to be the first one out of here. I see the bruises when you come back at the beginning of each year." Anne looked down at his words, pulling at her sleeves, absentmindedly. "It's not just Will who sees you, Anne, I do too. I may not be in love with you but you're still my friend."

Anne couldn't stop the tears from spilling down her face. No one had ever paid attention to her so closely before or cared enough to come after her when she pulled away. Kit immediately held her close as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"I can't get too close." Anne cried. "I've always been alone and that's how it's got to be. Everyone I've ever tried to care about has left or hurt me."

Kit's heart broke at Anne's words. He knew she'd had it bad in the past, but he didn't realise just how alone and broken Anne felt inside. Gently, he pulled her away and looked directly in her eyes.

"I promise you, Anne, that if you let Will and I in we'll never hurt or leave you. At least, not purposely. We want you to be happy, especially Will." Kit told her. He could see how dubious she looked but he refused to let her look away.

Anne sniffled. "I can't-"

"Yes, you can. You can't get rid of us this easy, Hathaway." Kit knew it would take more than this to change what years of abuse had moulded her into, but when Anne gave a small nod in response, he recognised that this was the start.

"I can't do this."

"Yes, you can." Kit took hold of Anne's shoulders and steered her back in the direction of the Gryffindor's dormitory. He was trying to convince Anne to go and talk to Will about what had been brought up during their conversation, but the smaller woman kept ducking out at the last minute.

Anne was too scared to talk to Will. What if Kit was wrong and Will didn't love her or hated her for abandoning their friendship? She couldn't deal if he left her after she'd poured out her soul to him.

"This is a bad idea and I'm just going to go back to my room and forget this ever happened."

"Anne?" The two teens turned in the direction of the voice to find Will watching them from behind.

"I thought you said he was in his room!" Anne hissed out of the corner of her mouth.

"I thought he was!" Kit defended.

Will stood silent as he listened to their exchange. He assumed Kit must have forgotten he got detention, but that didn't explain why Anne was currently waiting for him. She'd been ignoring him, and the past few days hadn't been any different.

"Anne, what are you doing here?" Will asked.

"I, uh…"

"She needs to talk to you about why she avoided us." Kit interjected. "I'll leave you both to it."

Anne was left alone with Will in the corridor as Kit said this month's password and stepped past the painting. She hugged herself, not able to look Will in the eye and regretting her decision to come here today. Will wanted to reach his hand out towards her but he didn't know whether it would scare her off or not.

"Anne, before you say anything, I want you to know that whatever you tell me won't change how I feel about you. I know you probably think that my feelings are nothing but a schoolboy crush, and I agree before I knew you, they probably were, but now I do know you? God, I love you with so much of my heart there's nothing left to protest."

Tears fell down Anne's cheeks. She couldn't understand how she got so lucky, how someone as wonderful as Will thought that way about her.

"I don't deserve you," Anne said, meekly.

"If there's anyone who doesn't deserve someone, it's me," Will said, finally reaching out and wiping Anne's tears away with his thumb. "You're so strong and I'm just a dumb idiot."

"Don't you dare say that. You're not dumb." Anne told him, though her sternness was lost thanks to her tear-stained face. She reached up and cupped his face in her hands.

"Then you deserve to be loved."

Will's hands covered Anne's own, forcing her to stay where she was as she tried to pull away. "Stop it, Will."

"I'm serious."

"So am I. I love you, Anne, and nothing you can say or do will change that."

Anne couldn't help it as she broke down, falling into Will's chest as he curled himself around her. She'd never felt so safe or loved before, and she felt her walls crumbling as she melted into his embrace. Never in a million years did she think she'd be stood in front of someone confessing their love for her so passionately, and Anne gave in.

"It's okay. I've got you." Will murmured, rubbing a hand through her hair.

Eventually, Anne calmed down and pulled back, looking up into Will's eyes. She could see the love he held for her shining so clearly and she didn't understand how she never believed it before.

"I want to kiss you so bad right now."

Anne let him.


End file.
